Adding to a discussion from several days ago about the differences between St Louis and Smith paint procedures, I just found these pic's of a near new St Louis build 66 that shows the bare glass area behind the rear lower panel tabs. The area with the well defined paint line was the side that had the only bolt in place. The other bolt hole was obviously open as there is body color on the metal reinforcement and fiberglass around the hole.
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More On St Louis Paint
Here's the rear lower panel from the same car. Obvious that the original bolt/washer location without paint was used while the body went theough prime/paint. The second ring shows that when the same panel was ultimately installed on a completed body, it was in a different position which tells us that the panel is definitely not the same one that was originally painted with the body. A O Smith bodies were painted without the rear lower panel in place so this doesn't apply.
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Re: More On St Louis Paint
Michael. were the door catches on the door jams installed before or after paint at Dow Smith?
TonyComment
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Re: More On St Louis Paint
Tony,
I don't know this as fact as I've never been to the Smith plant but I'm almost certain that the strikers were in place before the body was primed/painted. I know 100% for sure they were in place on St Louis built bodies. I'm sure someone with a Smith body can tell us if there's paint behind their strikers. Should be raw glass.Comment
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Re: More On St Louis Paint
Michael, There are plenty of pictures of the rear panel hanging from the rear by two bolts while the body is going through paint. While this panel in your picture may or may not have been hanging on that specific body, I dont know, but I believe that most stayed with their respective bodies. If you hang a panel by those same two bolts and then later bolt it up with all positions fastened it will never exactly match the unpainted portion.Comment
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Re: More On St Louis Paint
Wayne,
That may be the case for many, or most, of the C2's but I don't think it was for this particular body. I tried to hang this panel with the bolts in the original position and could not get the washer to cover the original unpainted portion of glass. The panel wouldn't shift far enough to allow installation in that position, even with one side outer flange over lapping the edge of the 1/4 panel. I was surprised but I suppose variations in body dim's from one body to another caused this.
Do you happen to have any of the pic's that you describe? I would like to have one for my files, if possible. Can you post one of the pic's? Thanks Wayne.Comment
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Re: More On St Louis Paint
Nolands, volume II has several of them. I can see where the switch could have occured though. Sometime before body drop the panel was removed and, as seen in the pictures, would have been replaced after the station where the bumbers were installed. If two or more cars were the same color, no doubt the panels could have been switched.Comment
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Re: More On St Louis Paint
Wayne,
The rear panel where removed from the back of the job as it came to Trim for a couple of reasons. I was for the installation of the wire harness, antenna lead & rear grommet. Another was for the installation of the taillights, marker lights and license lights. Still again was the installation of the rear emblem. On years with the alarm switch or horn installation the tail panel had to out of the way also.
Most of all this work was preformed by two operations. The operator who ran the rear wiring and the operator who had to crawl under the rear of the car to install all the other parts.
So what happened to the tail panels?
They were first removed and placed on the body truck just prior to the rear body support. Another operator would remove them and install bezels when they were needed. After that they where set to a rack and then pushed to Chassis line awaiting a car of the correct COLOR not job number of serial number.
If you notice pictures of the body marriage the rear panel is not mounted and in the way of marriage installation process.
I hope this explains why panels could be different than the ones that were painted with a unit.Comment
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Re: More On St Louis Paint
Wayne,
The panel would have been removed from the body and placed in a rack not long after the body came out of the final paint operation and before tail lamps were installed. The racks were on wheels and, when filled, were moved across the plant to the final line area, where the body was installed on the chassis. There could have been more than one of a particular color in the rack so it's possible this is where/when the switch took place.
There was no attempt/need to fit the panel to a particular body when first temporarily hung for prime/paint so there wouldn't be a need to keep these things in order. I DO wonder about some of the colors that were similar in appearance, especially blues in 67, though. Wouldn't be hard to have picked up the wrong blue panel. Possible that some system may have been used in later years to organize the racks of components by job number or sequence.
The same basic method was used for the headlight doors and vent grills on C2 and C3. These things were sent through prime/paint with a body but removed after bake and racked before being moved across the plant to the final trim line.Comment
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TerryComment
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Job Numbers On Exhaust Filler Panel
Apparently there were job numbers on C3s too, Terry, but mine has a date on it as you said.
The observation that exhaust panels sometimes were placed on C3s they were not painted on was made by Juliet #32595 in the following post from archives:
Rear Valances...
Juliet #32595 -- Saturday, 17 March 2001, at 9:45 p.m.
also sometimes have a yellow crayon job number on them. This often corresponds to the job # scrawled on the build sheet. I say often though, because on mine the grease number (163) is several numbers off from the build sequence number (102 or maybe 162 I haven't found it elsewhere yet). On my car the build sequence happens to correspond to my VIN #04102 I think. Pics on my web page. ~Juliet
I haven't seen anything from Juliet in a long time...I wonder how Juliet doing? She was also a student of Corvettes. I hope she didn't become apostate.Comment
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Re: Job Numbers On Exhaust Filler Panel
Yes, a very enthusiastic student of Corvettes. Last time I had communication with her she was working on her dissertation for a doctorate -- aeronautical engineering, I think. Something to do with vibration in helicopter rotor blades. Way technical stuff. I hope that and work and family is what is keeping her away.TerryComment
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Re: Job Numbers On Exhaust Filler Panel
Here's her 1970 Corvette website.
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Re: Job Numbers On Exhaust Filler Panel
There were some links to exhaust panel pictures in her original post, but as Uncle Jack adamantly maintains, the practice of using links to pictures is flawed...they were gone.
I went to the 70 registry to see if I could find her pictures in the photo section, but they weren't there either...I guess we'll just have to imagine how they looked.Comment
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Re: Job Numbers On Exhaust Filler Panel
Chuck,
I wonder if we could just send her an email and ask if these pic's are still available. I've probably seen these at some point over the years but I don't remember where. I know I don't have any of the rear body paint operation.Comment
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